


Consumed

by Ahhoverloaded



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: (One of her posessions), AU ep ix ending, Apparently hearing the tradgedy of darth plaguis the wise, Force Dyad (Star Wars), Force-Sensitive Leia Organa, Good let the hate flow through you, Lightning - Freeform, One Shot, Sith lightsaber
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-25
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-16 05:55:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29696049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ahhoverloaded/pseuds/Ahhoverloaded
Summary: Rey fulfills her 'duty' as the Emperor's granddaughter.





	Consumed

Rey's X-wing landed on the Sith's planet lightly. The whine of the engine was swallowed by a silent evil, also weighing Rey's already slumped shoulders closer to the ground. She looked up at the red-streaked sky, most of which was cut off in front of her by a stone larger than any structure she had ever seen. Underneath it was where the evil lay; her teeth chattered and legs moved, prompted by black, wrapping tendrils. Being led inside, she unhooked the Lightsaber from her belt and walked into the shadow of the floating monolith.

With millions of tons hovering above her, not another living creature in sight (even the Force seemed nearly dead), she felt like nothing. She grasped what the term "nobody" was. And in that moment, she was exactly that in her mind. Though she did not know it, the ones waiting did not label her that. For a moment she pondered sitting and trying to reach the Jedi, but looking at the stone ground she saw the Old Tongue engraved on the rocks. This was no place for any Jedi. Her soul turned cold. She looked back from where she came, but there was only darkness. Her feet continued to carry her forward, and she let herself get carried away. There was nothing she could do now; this was her destiny.

As she walked deeper and deeper into the ancient temple (what she figured the place to be, considering the monuments and ancient scriptures carved everywhere), hatred began to creep into her heart. Hatred, then fear, then hate towards her fear. When her eyes passed over the runes, invisible claws scraped at her sanity. Finally, she reached the center of the temple. Rey had always wanted to know where she came from. Standing here, in the midst of the darkest corner of the galaxy, she wished she'd never had that longing.

The stone beneath her shuddered and the darkness became absolute as a stone shaft engulfed her. She jolted at the first movement and readied her lightsaber. Though she could see nothing for a good while, the shaft ended and the hard light emitting from the blue bladed saber showed a spectacle.

"Wow," she gasped. A monumental cavern was around her now, but that wasn't what made her exclaim. She was hit with a wave of life force-no, the opposite somehow. Something dead was feasting off the living. She nearly swooned, never before feeling something so strong yet so...wrong. But she stood taller, attempting to get a lay of the land before the platform reached the low ground, yet darkness clouded her vision. When the rock stopped, she slowly crept off it. The darkness lifted slightly, almost parting at her presence, probably just to taunt her as the Throne, the one from her visions, her dreams, her nightmares, sat in front of her. It was almost beautiful. No. Her heart in her throat, she closed her eyes and let a long, slow breath out.

"I've waited for you, my heir."

Rey spun around, her lightsaber burning inches away from a hideously scarred face.

"The Last Jedi taught you well, granddaughter" A voice almost as hideous as the face it issued from reached her ears.

 _Granddaughter?_ Rey thought. _That can't be possible._

"How do you know me?" Rey kept the saber pointed at the man's face. He grinned and cackled. If it was possible, the ashen skin around his face made faces and laughed as well. It was the sound of a thousand dead souls; a torturous sound magnified by the cavern.

"Oh, the dark side is a pathway to many abilities some may consider unnatural but my dear you aren't considered unnatural; you are the exact definition of it. That is what it means to be a Palpatine. This is what it means to be a Sith, which is what you shall become."

"Luke was not the Last Jedi. He trained me and _I_ will not be the Last Jedi."

"Oh, Granddaughter, not only does your voice betray you, your heart does as well. You know why you are here. You have heard me; you have seen your future. My unfaithful apprentice Kylo Ren saw the future as well. I brought you here to make that happen. I brought you here!" Another cackle sent shivers down Rey's spine as the words echoed forever.

"You monster!" Rey wanted to yell, but her vocal cords were tightened. Palpatine stared at her from his suspended apparatus, the instruments keeping his body alive.

"Don't try to trifle with me, granddaughter. I know of your hate; I do this so you can be consumed by it. You will strike me down of your own free will and you will become all the Sith. You will sit on the throne and be Empress! The Line of Palpatine will go on forevermore and the Sith will rise again!"

"No! I am not the Last Jedi; it will not die with me!" She took her lightsaber and turned it off. She stared at it with fright, as if it would turn itself back on and use her hand to strike. Palpatine's eyes narrowed and a hollow laugh issued from his cracked lips.

"Oh, Granddaughter, you have too much of your mother in you. She was why your Father left my side. She seduced him to the light, just as you have seduced my apprentice."

[Ben arrived at Exegol after throwing away his Red lightsaber. Cornered by the Knights of Ren, he closes his eyes and hopes Rey hears him. She looks straight at Palpatine and turns on the saber, winds it back at if to strike, and drops it...right into Ben's hand. He begins to battle with the Knights.]

"Cruel child, why do you give hope when there is none left? Is that not the cruelest lie to give to someone you have _compassion_ for?" His apparatus moved him towards the center of the stadium. The Throne was captured right behind Palpatine's floating body. Rey didn't move from her spot. She could feel Ben's presence. She felt when he got kicked; when he fell to the ground. Her hands started trembling and she snapped them shut so quickly the sound bones popping echoed. When she didn't allow her feet to follow Palpatine to the center of the room, her feet forced her to. When Palpatine let go, Rey's legs buckled and she fell to her knees.

"Weak. The Skywalkers were weak. The Palpatines are not weak. Stand. Up." Palpatine commanded. Rey looked but did not stand. She could feel Ben getting closer. She closed her eyes, clearing her mind.

"Be with me," she whispered. "Be with me."

"The Jedi cannot 'be with you'," Palpatine mocked. "I am all the Sith. As you will be. We will commence the ceremony. You will strike me down with all your hate, devoid of the voices of the Jedi, you will fail your training of the Jedi and you will take your rightful place as Heir to the throne."

The word _Heir_ resounded by a million voices; creatures of darkness ready to serve this _heir_.

Rey looked around at all the creatures. They had all been there and they were going to watch her kill for sport, to them. She couldn't deny the hatred boiling her blood. Her hand went to her boot, where she had hidden Leia's lightsaber. Palpatine dropped to the ground from his apparatus. He was much smaller than his presence alluded to. For a second, a millisecond, Rey saw just an old creature. But the large stone slab that delivered Rey down to this arena began to descend again. Rey looked up at the stone, her heart skipping a beat as blue light illuminated a bloody and bruised face. Ben's face. He lept off the rock, shifting his intense stare from Rey to Palpatine.

"Ah, the Dyad. The prophesied ones. Together to bring Balance to the Force. One light and one dark, both to be swayed to the other side. The nobody and the prince. The Light Queen and the Dark King. The perfect pair."

"Oh, will you stop talking?" Ben moaned, clutching his side, trying to diminish himself and tell Rey his plan silently. Yet, their attention was pulled away as Palpatine opened up the roof of the colosseum, revealing the space fight going on above them.

Rey hadn't realized so many Rebels had shown up. They were all getting destroyed. Panic. If panic could be shown visually, it was that space battle. Thousands of Destroyers versus tens of thousands of rebel ships, yet the ten thousand were no match for even one of the destroyers.

"Stop this, Grandfather." Yet Rey knew those words were empty. She wasn't sure what to really process. Hate? Yes. Panic? Double yes. Fear? Overwhelming. The hope she had was dwindling. She realized she was the abandoned girl back on Jakku. Again, she felt small, insignificant. Weak and abandoned, not even at the mercy of the Sith. She was at the mercy of herself. Wasn't good supposed to trump evil? Weren't the Jedi supposed to be good? Wasn't _she_ supposed to be good?

"That's what my master said before I struck him down. Plaguis the wise; too wise for his own good, unable to see past his own true significance, becoming the catalyst to my strength!"

Every thought running through Rey's head was conveyed to Palpatine through her body language.

"Just as I am yours." Palpatine smiled wickedly.

He watched her eyes slowly die, the flame that had been bouncing around, so strong when she entered, finally get blown out. Until she looked at Ben.

He was tired and hurt, but he was Ben. He wasn't Kylo. There was a look in his eye she could even see through the dark. And his face. Not scarred anymore, just scared. But through his pain and terror, he made his way behind Palpatine, exactly opposite Rey. She was noticing all these little details: his set jaw, his legs ready to sprint at a nod of her head. All these little details to distract her from the choices to be made; no, the choices she had already made but denied.

Then pain. Ben tried to use the saber to block it but caught off guard he was no match for the chaotic electricity that issued from Palpatine's hands. He was grabbed and thrown in front of Rey.

As Palpatine had his hands up, twisting and throwing lightning at Ben, he kept his eyes on Rey. With Palpatine's concentration elsewhere, Ben finally grabbed his saber and caught the lightning. One-handed he held the saber, with his other hand he pushed himself up. Palpatine had to turn his full attention to Ben. Though it pained her, Rey saw that this was Ben's sacrifice. The flame that had returned feebly when she just looked at him regained all its strength. This renewed flame, however, burned with a different intensity. This was fueled by love. It would have stayed that way, if Palpatine hadn't turned his Force Lightning onto her. Then she couldn't look at Ben; she couldn't hear his cries and still _love_. 

Looking up at the slaughtering sky, Rey reached down into her boot and pulled out Leia's lightsaber. She activated it, catching the crackling lightning and advanced towards its producer. The Green blade swung down far too easy. 

When the blade struck, lightning spilled out of every pore in Palpatine. The thousand faces trapped in his skin erupted into ghoulish, semi-transparent bodies outlined in crimson, becoming tendrils clawing at the air before ripping themselves into shreds to be consumed by the circulating lightning. Rey stood shocked still as this battle engulfed her.

The ghosts captured by the lightning began to command it, closing the space between them and their prey. Lightning wrapped around Rey until she was pure light. Ben looked away as it exploded, revealing Rey suspended in the air, before it all came back down and speared her. She gasped, her hazel iris' turning black. The souls of the Sith entered her body through the lightning. Even though the lightning dissipated, the voices; the faces swirled around her freckled skin before releasing her from the ritual. She collapsed to the ground.

Ben started limping as fast as he could over to Rey but about halfway there, the ground started to crumble around her body. It separated them, just as it has on Starkiller base. Ben wished this chasm was larger: Leia's saber hilt began to crack under the pressure of Rey's hand. The green blade snapped on and began to flicker in and out. Out and in. Red. Flash of green. Off.

Crimson.

Rey let go of the saber for a second. The casing was molded to her hand. The last thing from Ben's mother, gone. Consumed by hatred. Consumed by the same force he had just defeated within himself.

The ground that was cracked in the arena began to rise until Rey was at the opened roof. Ben watched as she brought her open hands up and released lightning into the battle above. The tree of lightning that issued from her rivaled any star, and it was beautiful. Absolutely stunning until it began hitting ships. It aimed for the star destroyers, but a few Rebel ships got caught in the way. It wasn't until every destroyer was broken into a thousand pieces and began falling to the surface of the planet did Rey relent the lightning. With her rampage complete, the ground she used to raise herself up began to slowly descend. [[She was looking at Ben with those doe eyes of hers, now clouded over with the voices of millennia of Sith.]] She touched the ground and it mended, bridging the gap between Ben and her, but also the gap between her and the throne.

Rey looked at Ben and extended her hand.

"Ben," Rey said. But that voice of hers, with a thousand inflections, that had once been so kind and understanding, cut like a knife. Because it still sounded like her. It still sounded like the Rey he had fallen for.

"Come with me. We can rule the galaxy together, just like you proposed. You saw that I would take your hand and we would rule side by side, on this...or, actually, these thrones."

Rey moved her hand to the right and the singular throne split into two.

"You have always known who you are. You killed your father in anger trying to secure it, but you have forsaken that path and chosen your destined one. You came here because you knew it would strengthen you. Join me. We can leave the past behind. There is no more Final Order. No more First Order, no more Empire. I never wanted that. The Sith as a whole never wanted that; that was just Palpatine's goal and he framed it on the Sith laws. We don't need to be rulers of the galaxy, just of the Force. We can control it. Together. Find that balance, together. The Light and Dark. We can fulfill our namesakes. Join me. Please."

She held out her hand. Yet still in the other was the crushed and bleeding saber that once belonged to Ben's mother. He looked at her face, softly illuminated by the explosions happening on the surface above. The haunted look in her eyes was fading, as was the frantic smile plastered on her face. But this was still not his Rey. What could he do, if anything?

"Rey," he breathed her name out but it wasn't enough. He coughed and repeated her name. "Rey, I..."

When Ben didn't immediately take her hand, Rey's brows furrowed. He saw her grip on the lightsaber tighten, and her finger was dangerously near the on button. He took her hand.

"My Queen," he said, entwining his fingers with hers, though he glanced at the saber in her hand and saw her grip lessened. She stared into his eyes and with his touch, they became clearer, more of her own. "What is our first decree?"


End file.
